Once we got the whole app or website structure in place, it's time to use some color, photos, icons, illustrations and beautiful typography (sorry Roboto and SF fonts!).
If you don't know at the moment what these elements are, meaning there is no branding for the app or website, you need to define the whole visual identity before digging into UI design details.
Through UI design, our task is to:
- make the user experience easy, enjoyable and delightful
- make the app recognizable and stand out from other apps
- make the app communicate the same brand values as the company does
- achieve consistency throughout the features and mobile platforms
Iterating on the UI
Before you dig into UI design of every screen, make as many versions as possible to find the right visual fit. Here, the collaborative design approach might help if you get stuck. Consider to ping-pong a few screens with a colleague from the design team.
Present only the 2-3 most polished versions to the client. You don't want to confuse them with too many ideas and variations. You are the expert, and you need to show your skills and expertise in the best light.
Testing the UI with users
If you're working on a project highly influenced by user opinion, you can use the desirability testing method to ask the users which version of the UI design is better.
Desirability testing helps us get objective feedback from users. We usually show them 2-3 versions of the UI and ask them to choose terms from the list of adjectives that describe the version best. The proposal which overlaps the most with the objectives we have set for UI design wins.
Here you can find more information about this method.
Finalizing the UI design
While approaching the end of the design phase, make sure you have:
- a styleguide with colors, typography, brand elements and components
- all the screens set in color and typography styles organized in components
- screens organized in flows separated in different pages
- archive page or duplicated file with old iterations and unused versions
- exportable elements for developers
- comments with specific behaviour and flow descriptions for developers
- Favicons and open graph images for web apps and websites
- App Store and Play Store icons, screenshots and featured graphics for mobile apps
- Complete UI stack (↓) of the screens and components
